"There Were Only 20 Job Openings In All Of Minsk."
- 24.10.2026, 10:59
Competition for IT jobs in Belarus has increased significantly.
In the Grodno Region, more than 100 people are competing for each IT position; competition has tripled over the past year. Why are there not enough jobs for specialists, and what is causing the shortage of openings? “Radio Svaboda” takes a closer look.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a job in IT in Belarus. According to statistics from the job and resume service rabota.by, there are currently more than 30 people competing for every IT position in the country. In some regions, the situation is even more challenging. For example, in the Grodno region, 106 people are competing for a single position; competition has tripled over the past year. In the Vitebsk Region, 58 specialists are competing for a single IT position (a year ago, this figure was 27); in the Mogilev Region, 81.5 (a year ago, it was 36); in the Gomel Region—89 (compared to 35 a year ago), and in the Brest Region—68 (compared to 39 a year ago).
The situation looks better in Minsk: 24 people per opening, compared to 17 last year. These statistics come from a popular service that compared the number of job openings to the number of resumes.
Mikhail (name changed for security reasons—RS) spent a month and a half looking for an IT job in Belarus, despite having more than 5 years of experience. There were only about two dozen job openings in his field for the entire city of Minsk. He considers himself lucky, as other colleagues spent significantly longer looking for work: in one case, it took a year; in another, half a year.
“It’s hardest for testers and designers because companies are implementing artificial intelligence. In my field, there were about 20 relevant job openings, and half of them have been posted for a year or two—meaning they’re looking for the perfect candidate, and they’re fine with keeping the position open for as long as it takes. A friend of mine, with five years of experience, has been looking for a job for a year now. There are some IT-specific job openings from state-owned companies. When I was looking at job postings, ‘Gorremautodor’ was definitely looking for such specialists with a salary starting at 6,000 rubles. And there are many such state-owned companies. “Banks are also looking for IT specialists,” said my source.
The national job and resume database currently lists only 319 job openings for developers. For example, a software engineer at BelAZ is offered 1,200 rubles.
The “Dobronom” retail chain is looking for a 1C developer. The salary there is higher—6,000 rubles.
A developer at a company that provides business support in the field of e-commerce is offered up to 12,000 rubles.
What’s the reason for the shortage of job openings
“Radio Svaboda” spoke on condition of anonymity with several people from the Belarusian IT sector who hold management positions. According to their observations, there is indeed a shortage of job openings, and this is due to several factors. First and foremost, “many major market players have left Belarus,” and they “do not want to work with Belarusians within the country due to sanctions.” The use of artificial intelligence is also creating new conditions.
“Whereas before a team needed 40–50 people for a given project, now 10 are enough, and the rest are out of work. Many IT specialists left Belarus after 2020. However, many new ones have emerged since then, and they need somewhere to work,” said one of the interviewees.
He clarified that these issues primarily affected outsourcing companies that work on custom projects. Traditionally, such companies have made up the majority in Belarus. Product companies that develop their own software have been less affected by these issues.
Also, according to our sources, employees are receiving fewer of the bonuses that used to be available: pay raises are less frequent, and there’s less chance of staying with the company during lulls between projects.
Forced Reorientation
Anastasia Luzgina, a senior researcher at the Beroc Research Center , also points out that Belarusian companies have had to refocus on the CIS and Asian markets, where they face their own competition. There is also competition among professionals in Belarus, since it’s not only Belarusians who are looking for work here.
“Employers are less interested in entry-level candidates. In general, companies are striving to optimize their processes, hire fewer employees, yet maintain the same workload and continue operations by adopting and utilizing artificial intelligence technologies. This trend is observed worldwide. For Belarus, opportunities to operate in the high-margin markets of Europe and the U.S. are significantly limited. Consequently, these same companies have been forced to refocus on markets in the CIS countries and Asian regions. First, the reorientation itself—the search for new clients and partners—requires additional costs. Second, these markets also have their own IT infrastructures and IT companies, which undoubtedly create competition for Belarusian companies,” — notes our interviewee.
For several years in a row, Belarus has been falling in the Global Innovation Index 2026. It currently ranks 88th out of 139 possible countries, placing it between Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. In 2020, Belarus ranked 64th in the same index.
The ranking is compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations. The ranking’s compilers assess how well countries create conditions for innovation and transform scientific, technological, and creative developments into tangible results.
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